Design Strategies for Emergency Housing in Colombia

The development of South American informal urban areas are the consequence of many complex factors. These factors involve social exclusion, precluded access to services, and the right to housing. Because of these issues, most Colombians live in poverty with 26.9% below the poverty line and 36% in rural areas (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE), 2017). Recent welfare interventions in Colombia have reduced this deficit by about one-third (Téllez, 2017), but it is not enough. This paper presents research from the Department of Architecture at Roma Tre University. It discusses the mitigation of housing problems in Colombian urban settlements through self-built modular units. The contribution describes the characteristics of participatory design and construction within the dialectic between formal and informal cities